Billions at stake with a vacancy at the top

IT HAS often been observed that the Catholic Church has thought not in terms of decades but of centuries, and in laying down his mitre, Pope Benedict XVI had us delving into the history books and doing the same. He is the first Pope to resign for nearly 600 years and the first to do so voluntarily since 1294. He resigned two days before one of the church's holiest days, Ash Wednesday.

The German Joseph Ratzinger was 78 when he became the 265th occupant of the throne of St Peter in 2005. The church by then had endured a decade of the failing health of Pope John Paul II.

Pope Benedict's reign will not be remembered for the energy shown in the first decade of Pope John Paul, who through public preaching and private manoeuvring became as responsible as any other individual for the collapse of Europe's communist regimes.

On this page in 2005, we reflected that John Paul was one of the great popes. ''But his style also invited a kind of celebrity status that had the effect of exaggerating the primacy of the Pope with respect to his bishops and made it much more difficult for his successor to fill his shoes.'' It can certainly be argued that BXVI was no JPII.

Pope Benedict was unable to rally humanity to the fight against the ''dictatorship of relativism'', the growth of individualism and materialism - and alternative forms of spirituality.

And he vacates the throne with Christianity surging in Africa and Asia but under threat in its Middle Eastern cradle as political Islam asserts itself. In the 10 years since Western forces invaded Iraq - a war condemned by Pope John Paul II - that country's strong Christian community has been smashed and the Arab Spring has threatened a ''Christian winter''. Pope Benedict's earthly powers were shown as unequal to the task of stemming the tide of sectarian persecution.

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The cardinals will elect the 266th Pope before Easter. Questions will swirl over whether it is time for a break from European popes, recognising the growing flocks in Africa and Asia, and the church's deep roots in Latin America.

We will leave more excitable elements to punt around the prospects of the first Australian pontiff.

More Australians today might describe themselves as cultural Catholics rather than avid followers of the faith. They wed in a church and send their children to Catholic schools, and will be treated when they are ill and needy by Catholic caregivers. Here lies the strength of the faith-based mission.

But like many Catholics in the West, a great portion of the Australian flock made a decisive break from the teachings of the church when Pope Paul VI condemned artificial contraception in 1968. Meanwhile our head of state is still prohibited from being a Catholic under the British Parliament's 1701 Act of Settlement: another reason for Australia to become a republic.

In Australia this year, there will be intense scrutiny on the church when the royal commission into child abuse begins. Inevitably there will be evidence that reflects poorly on the church, even as we are reminded that the failings and crimes were the failings and crimes of individuals.

We note that Pope Benedict, like Pope John Paul II, faced outrage at the incidence of child abuse in the church.

The challenges of emptying pews in Europe (and Australia) and the above-mentioned troublespots will keep Pope Benedict's successor well and truly occupied in his role as another earthly politician.

Any changes to the church's teachings relating to homosexuality, women's mission and reproductive matters such as abortion and contraception look as far away as ever.

But at least in the manner of his leaving, Pope Benedict frees his successor in a practical way to only continue in the role while mind and body - as well as spirit - are able.

We noted on this page in 2005 that the chief role of the Pope is to build a bridge between humanity and God. We wish the man who will step into the shoes of St Peter this Easter the wisdom and energy equal to that, and many other, tasks.